By Johnson Idowu, Benue
Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons rescued no fewer than 26 trafficked children at an orphanage home in Benue State and arrested four orphanage operators for allegedly selling trafficked children between N1m and N3m.
The NAPTIP National Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, disclosed in a statement on Sunday.
According to Adekoye, the suspects included a 60-year-old member of the Orphanage Owners Umbrella body in Nigeria and founder of an internationally recognized Civil Society Organisation, National Council of Child’s Rights Advocates of Nigeria.
He noted that the syndicates allegedly trafficked and sold over 300 children under the guise of adoption, among whom 26 were rescued.
The statement read, “In a breakthrough led by operatives of the agency, Markudi Command, the agency rescued 26 children, out of the over 300 suspected to have been trafficked and sold to different persons within Benue, Enugu, Lagos, Nasarawa, and Abuja, while about 274 others are still being traced, as investigations intensify to unravel the full extent of the syndicate’s activities.
“Also arrested with the suspect is a suspected 34-year-old female accomplice, and two other Orphanage Operators in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and Nasarawa State, where some allegedly trafficked children were recovered. Some of the orphanages identified were used as holding centres where children awaited “adoption” or sale.
“Four orphanage homes located at Kaigini, Kubuwa Expressway, Abuja; Masaka Area 1, Mararaba, by Abaca Road; and Mararaba, behind the International Market, have been linked to the syndicate and are currently under investigation
He added that one of the complainants had alleged that he paid N2.8m as an adoption fee and N100,000 as a consultancy fee to a member of the syndicate.
